Leading mobile phone operator Robi bagged Tk 34.30 crore as profit after tax amid what it said, ‘heavy toll on financial performance caused by the impact of 2 percent minimum tax on gross revenue.’
Having added 10 lakhs customers, Robi’s subscriber base now reached to 5 crore 19 lakhs by the end of Q1’21. With 70.6% subscribers being internet users, Robi is leading the competition towards digitalization across the country, said a press release.
Robi’s total revenue in Q1’21 stood at 1,981 crore taka, which is 3.2 percent up than the last quarter of 2020 and 1.7 pc higher than the same quarter last year.
However, Robi’s voice revenue declined by 4.2pc, compared to the same quarter of last year, indicating growing onslaught of OTT platforms for making voice calls. Data revenue, on the other hand, grew by 8.5 pc compared to the last quarter, and by 16.3 pc compared to last year’s same quarter.
The mobile phone operator contributed Tk 1,115 crore to the government exchequer in Q1’21, representing 56.3pc of the total revenue for the quarter. The company made 150.6 crore taka capex investment in Q1’21. Robi had 13,502 sites at the end of Q1’21, 100 pc of which were 4G sites.
Robi’s Board of Directors has recommended an interim cash dividend at the rate of 3 pc of the paid-up capital of the company (Tk 0.30 per share of Tk 10 each). The decision was taken at the Board Meeting held on 8th April 2021.
Commenting on the financial performance of the company, Robi’s Managing Director and CEO, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed said: “We are very happy to note that all the financial performance indicators are heading in the right direction right at the beginning of the year.
He added that on the back of this positive momentum, Robi was very proud to declare an interim cash dividend.
Mahtab said, “While we have registered PAT of 34.3 crore taka in Q1’21, we have observed that it is being held back significantly by the impact of the 2% minimum tax on gross revenue.”
The Robi CEO said: “Not just that, this unjust tax has also denied us the benefit of slightly reduced corporate tax rate (40%) offered to the listed telecom companies. It is more concerning that our general shareholders are being deprived of the value despite significant contributions to the bourses. We once again urge the authorities concerned to unshackle our business from this unjust tax.”
